The invention relates to board games, particularly to those involving strategic moves towards one or more goals or objective positions.
A number of games have been invented to test a player's ability to strategically move against an opponent while considering a variety of alternatives available to the player.
Backgammon and Parchesi are examples of games wherein a player negotiates the movement of similar playing pieces about a playing board. The distance of movement along fixed paths of the playing pieces is dictated by a roll of the dice in these games. In the game of chess, players alternate turns but the path and distance of movement in two dimensions about a board varies depending upon the placing piece selected for movement. A variety of playing boards have been invented and patented to accomodate such games. For example U.S. Pat. No. 1,642,711, issued on Sept. 20, 1927, to E. C. Alfonso teaches a rectangular playing board with an outer series of cusps, one circle and an inner series of cusps. The circle and the cusps generally provide a variety of paths to the center of the circle. U.S. Pat. No. 1,559,954, issued on Nov. 3, 1925, to H. E. Gifford teaches a rectangular game board with one circular path which is connected with a cross path and a winning objective point in the center of the circle. U.S. Pat. No. 506,797, issued on Oct. 17, 1893, to W. Schaaf and G. A. Ritz teaches a generally circular playing area which further comprises a series of helical paths towards a center point. The possibilities for variations in such game board patterns is virtually infinite.
Other games have been structured about a given theme. "Monopoly", for example, teaches a rectangular playing board whose playing spaces correspond with the locales and neighborhoods of a ficticious community. The ficticious community further commprises a railroad system, utilities, and a jail. Variations of this game have been developed which capitalize on various different areas by renaming the board spaces to coincide with local neighborhoods. "Risk" is a game which is based upon the strategy involved in a potential world war. Players move various types of military members from country to country in an effort to achieve world domination.
An experience common to most people in present day societal life is that of encountering a selection of checkout lines in the supermarket. The one we select may be closed without warning or, perhaps after selecting a given line, one may open up several lines down causing us to be "out of position" to take advantage of the sudden time-saving windfall. To date, no game has been developed to capitalize upon this everyday experience, which is frequently frustrating and often calls on our full range of strategic resources.